Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir

Five Sudanese soldiers have been killed while fighting for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition against Houthi forces in Yemen, a spokesperson for Sudan’s armed forces said on Wednesday.

The statement was a rare acknowledgement of casualties suffered by Sudan since the east African nation sent hundreds of its soldiers to Yemen in 2015 to bolster Gulf Arab troops in the southern port city of Aden trying to keep out the Iran-allied Houthis.

The army did not specify when the troops were killed.

“We lost five martyrs and 22 others have been wounded… we inflicted huge losses on the enemy and are holding many prisoners of war,” said army spokesman Brig.-Gen. Ahmed Al-Shami.

The two two-year conflict pits the armed Houthi group against the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by an alliance comprising the Gulf monarchies Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates along with Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.

No fewer than 10,000 people have been killed by coalition air strikes and fighting on the ground that has pushed the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country to the edge of famine.

(Reuters/NAN)